Category: Humility

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Roses or Thorns?

It’s been a long time since I wrote.

Our family has been busy with our move to a different city. Our daughter has joined College at the new place.

Our new location is different. It lacks conveniences of city life, but is quieter. The apartment is an older one and so lacks a few of the conveniences of the previous apartment. However, it has many other positive aspects. Besides, we are the owners. We had bought the apartment many years back as an investment.

Adjusting to the new situation has been a strain for us. With the packing/unpacking, refurbishment work and decisions to be made (with differences in opinion), we tend to lose our patience with each other.

Added to that, our daughter’s online classes have begun and she is going through her own stress having changes at home and college to cope with.

While complaining/arguing about small issues, we keep forgetting about the innumerable positives in our new situation. My daughter’s happy with her online classes. We have furnished our apartment quite well. In many aspects our new place is much better than any of our previous apartments.

Blessings are abundant. God guided us to buy this apartment for just this day. It’s through God’s Grace only that we own such a lovely place when there are so many people who are homeless.

I read the article below just in time so I can remind myself to look at the “roses” and not the “thorns”.

I am sorry Lord Jesus for being so ungrateful. Thank you so much for your abundant mercies and blessings. Thank you for guiding our lives and bringing us to this point in our lives. Thank you for our wonderful home. Thank you for my daughter’s college admission enabling her to do the course that she likes. Thanks a lot, Lord!

Seeing Beauty Instead of Pain

“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” Luke 8:14 (NIV)

My life hasn’t been a bed of roses.

What an odd statement. It’s supposed to mean that I haven’t lived a life without snags and hurt. However, think of an actual bed of roses. Doesn’t it have both thorns and flowers?

My aunt grew roses for years. She’s the one I lived with for almost a year when I was in middle school and my family was falling apart. I remember her telling me not to run through her rose garden. After all, she had what seemed like hundreds of other acres that unfolded in wide open fields. I could run there.

But I didn’t want to.

I only wanted to run through the rose garden. I wanted to spread my arms wide open and run between the rows, brushing my fingertips across all the velvety blooms. I wanted some of the blooms to burst and shower petals all around. Then I could gather the petals and spread them along my path.

As if I could carve a new place in this world lined with beauty and void of adult words like divorce, rejection and hate … I wanted my world to be soft, pink and lovely. I didn’t want to think about my dad leaving our family. My heart couldn’t process how he not only didn’t live with us anymore, but also he was slowly pulling back from participating in our lives altogether.

So, I took a running start with my arms outstretched, only to be shocked with searing pain within the first few steps.

Thorns. Big, mean, vicious thorns. Thorns that ripped my flesh and opened up the flood of tears I’d been so determined to hold back. Suddenly, I hated that bush. I wanted to chop it down and beat it into the ground. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to destroy something that produced such beauty.

I stood back from the source of my pain and wondered, Should I call it a bush of thorns or a bush of flowers? Really, it could go either way.

Suddenly I wasn’t just staring at a bush. I was staring at my life. My life. Such a bed of roses.

Would I see the hurt, or would I see the beauty?

Luke 8:14 says, “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.” The seed being referred to here is the Word of God. Isn’t it interesting that people who are choked by life’s circumstances and never mature are referred to as having thorns in the soil of their soul?

Yes, life sometimes hands us thorns, but we have the choice to park our minds on the thorn or on the beauty it can eventually produce in us, if only we’ll cling tightly to God’s Word. How a person thinks is how they will eventually become.

If we dwell on the negative in life, we’ll become negative, and God’s Word will have a hard time taking root in our souls. If, however, we acknowledge the negative but choose instead to look for the good that can come from it, God’s Word will take root in our souls and produce a lush crop of beauty.

It all comes down to choice. That day in my aunt’s garden, I chose to be aware of the thorns but park my mind on the beautiful roses.

And over the years, I have come to the place in my life where I realize I can focus on the hurt my dad’s absence caused or choose to focus on other things in my life. Beautiful things. To focus on beauty isn’t to deny the pain. It’s just refusing to let it steal anything else from me.

It’s been more than 25 years since I’ve seen my dad. That’s hard on a girl’s heart. But where he fell so short, God has filled in many gaps. I don’t have to be the child of a broken parent the rest of my life; I can be a child of God. Loved. Truly loved.

And that is a beautiful truth I can let flourish in my heart.

Dear Lord, it can be really hard to focus on the petals rather than the thorns of life. But I want the soil of my soul to be healthy and ready to receive Your Word. Will You produce beauty in my life despite the thorns that have hurt me? In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2020 by Lysa TerKeurst. All rights reserved.
Proverbs 31 Ministries
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Am I humble enough?

[Christ Jesus] made himself nothing.

Philippians 2:7

While reflecting on the devotional below from Our Daily Bread, I remembered the time when my pride led to a lot of stress at work especially when I was working in Kuwait.

I had this feeling that I was better than some of my colleagues who were given greater consideration due to their nationality. This made it difficult for me to accept insignificant work from them which were not suitable to my post, but I was forced to do since that was the work culture there.

At other times, I generally had a feeling that I was good at work and did not consider some of my colleagues capable of doing as well.

This attitude led to a lot of mental stress and complexes. I did not need to think like that. I could have done my work as I would have done for God and ignored any other issues. I could have also considered that all of us have something positive given by God irrespective of our differences.

Even now, I have the habit of arguing thinking that I am right when it is equally possible that the other person is right.

Our Lord Jesus humbled Himself so much for us when He had all the power in the world. He had no ego, pride or issues when He was mocked at and crucified.

When He humbly accepted His situation, how silly it was for me to stress over such petty issues.

Thank you Lord for showing this to me. Help me to change my attitude and to be humble always.

As the American Revolution concluded with England’s improbable surrender, many politicians and military leaders maneuvered to make General George Washington a new monarch. The world watched, wondering if Washington would stick to his ideals of freedom and liberty when absolute power was within his grasp. England’s King George III saw another reality, however. He was convinced that if Washington resisted the power pull and returned to his Virginia farm, he would be “the greatest man in the world.” The king knew that the greatness evidenced in resisting the allure to power is a sign of true nobility and significance.

Paul knew this same truth and encouraged us to follow Christ’s humble way. Even though Jesus was “in very nature God,” he “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage” (Philippians 2:6). Instead, He surrendered His power, became “a servant” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death” (vv. 7-8). The One who held all power surrendered every bit of it for the sake of love.

And yet, in the ultimate reversal, God exalted Christ from a criminal’s cross “to the highest place” (v. 9). Jesus, who could demand our praise or force us to be obedient, laid down His power in a breathtaking act that won our worship and devotion. Through absolute humility, Jesus demonstrated true greatness, turning the world upside down.

REFLECT & PRAY

Thank You, Jesus, that in Your most destitute and (seemingly) disgraceful moment, You demonstrated Your true power and greatness.

By Winn Collier